by Peter Fagan FAVOURITES - 3 June 2009 - According to a recent study by researchers at James Cook University and the Australian National University, the Murray Darling Basin, which drives the rural economy of eastern Australia, has lost approximately 200 cubic kilometres of water since 2001. This water loss – equivalent ...Read More > >

Christopher ConollyFAVOURITES 23 October 2009 - NSW’s Planning Department has been under the gun with decisions on rezonings declared illegal. In the following article, Maddocks partner, Christopher Conolly, explains what went wrong, with an analysis of the Gwandalan and Summerland Point  challenge in the NSW Land Environment Court - In ...Read More > >

LETTER - 2 December 2009 - I just read your article [Bullies win in timber industry and union war to brown-off Green Star rating system]. We have had very similar discussion here in North America. One point that is brought up is why [the Canada] GBC requires certification of forests ...Read More > >

The opportunity for Australia to remove 150 million tonnes of “legacy” carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere will be lost if the Government does not include agricultural and biological sequestration offsets in the emissions trading scheme, according to members of Environment Business Australia's Bio-CCS group. Following is an article ...Read More > >

By Romilly Madew Recently, I was honoured to attend the Telstra Business Women’s Awards state finals in NSW, and to win my category of White Pages Community and Government (NSW) after being nominated by a member of the Green Building Council of Australia. Winning such an award has given me pause to ...Read More > >

By Lisa Tarry 25 November 2009 - There is no agreed definition for the term “green-collar jobs”, unfortunately, and as a result it is difficult to estimate how many so-called green-collar jobs exist, or are likely to be created with various green-economy plans. Neither are there definitive lists of the industries, job ...Read More > >

We couldn't agree more with your article titled, "Housing and building industry's knee jerk reaction is same old same old". We too are part of the building industry but our interests, and those of many other building industry associations, are not represented by the HIA. HIA fought the introduction of 5 ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs 23 November 2009 - A week ago I watched two lines of ants going up and down a tree. "Where are they going to?" I asked Frances Bodkin, or Auntie Fran as the local Aborigines call her. "They go up to an aphid's nest at the top. They ...Read More > >

The Telstra Women’s Business Awards, NSW, in October, was pause for a little contemplation on the status of women in business, writes Lisa Tarry The buzz in the air that only a room full of driven, successful women can create was electrifying. The recent Telstra Women’s Business Awards celebrated achievements by ...Read More > >

by Michael Mobbs 5 October 2009 - Birds, back lanes, experts, professionals and politicians are in dramatic decline. Only one thing separates them and us from extinction. Gutsy media. To get a sense of what gutsy media is, and whether it may be able to prevent our extinction, click on the following ...Read More > >

Producing a single, accurate digital map of proposed urban developments requires collaboration on an unprecedented scale by Davina Jackson The Commonwealth Government is considering a proposal for two new national research co-ordination organisations to support a future industry of professionals applying automatic digital technologies to create and manage smart cities. Emerging tools include ...Read More > >

By Maria Marshall Coverage of the waste sector under the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is likely to prompt re-evaluation of the planning, ownership, management and operation of landfill sites in the State's urban and rural areas. re-evaluation should take account of the broader regulatory and policy environment applicable to waste. Elements ...Read More > >

Did you know that in New York they are planning a 30 storey farm? The movement to inject new life into the green building movement - formerly known as Chrysalis – and now known as SHIFT - has made its first public submission, to the Draft Plan for Greater Adelaide. ...Read More > >

by Michael Mobbs - - 23 October 2009 - Residents of Chippendale [Sydney] are seeking a new road design for Australia. Their goals are to: build a demonstration road that will cool our cities, grow our food, and grow conversations in our streets by 2009, to use the project to create ...Read More > >

LETTER - 22 October 2009 - Dear Michael [Mobbs] I subscribe to The Fifth Estate newsletter and have just finished reading your article, “Bathurst Burr: Supermarkets are killing our villages”. It's like you have been reading my mind; even though I can only dream of writing as well as you. I ...Read More > >

There are critical issues to be faced by the meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council in Perth on 5 November - not least the collapse of the valuable recycling industry and the scandal of our export of toxic rubber tyres to Asia, says Ruth Hessey. The stigma around the ...Read More > >

by Lisa Tarry It's the million-dollar question: what are green skills? And it was the opening question at the Green Steps' session of the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability conference at Macquarie University in Sydney recently. But are green jobs just political rhetoric or the actual creation of new jobs for ...Read More > >

- By Romilly Madew - By 2030, more than half of the world's urban population will live in the Asia Pacific region. It's easy to see why when nearly a million people move from rural to urban environments each week - the equivalent to building a medium-sized city every seven days. On ...Read More > >

by Peter Robinson, Sustainable Urbanism September 25, 2009 - It’s indisputable that we are going to have to be incredibly busy if we are to reduce our CO2 emissions, or achieve the 20 per cent renewable energy target. And we are going to need some very serious action from governments, at ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs One wish for music for the end of time.  (1)  Seven wishes for the end of cities. Burr makes these wishes having just read what is forecast for the Earth’s cities in the next 30 years: “Take all the cities that are currently in the developing world – Mexico City, ...Read More > >

by Peter Fagan, Asia Pacific Sustainability Leader, MWH - 22 September 2009 - An article in yesterday's Australian Financial Review titled, “Farmers reap rich harvest from water” raises a number of serious issues for rural communities. At a time when rural communities, particularly those in the Murray Darling Basin, are already ...Read More > >

LETTER - 16 September 2009 - Following  the article in The Sydney Morning Herald of 14 September “Architects deride Keating’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ vision” the NSW Group of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects responds: As open space design professionals we welcome this latest debate relating to Barangaroo [development site adjoining the ...Read More > >

LETTER: 14 September 2009 -Philip Thalis, Paul Berkemeier and Jane Irwin were the authors of the competition winning scheme for Barangaroo, a unique waterfront redevelopment site adjoining the Sydney CBD.Following is an edited version of a letter the group sent to the NSW Department of Planning to protest against new ...Read More > >

  By David Wilson - Another 500,000 thousand residents in Western Sydney cannot be accommodated without a radical overhaul of transport policies. Transportation is a very emotive word in Australia, starting with the arrival of the First Fleet and its crew of convicts in 1788 after a long and tedious journey, to ...Read More > >

- by Romilly Madew - “It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather,” eighteenth century writer Samuel Johnson famously remarked. The extreme weather conditions over the last month have certainly provided Australians with much to discuss. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology says that the month ...Read More > >

By Michael Mobbs Some Australian councils have made, or are planning to make, long-term contracts with no-competition conditions under which they commit to paying minimum amounts for providing minimum amounts of garbage to high tech private contractors. Imagine that.  Contracting away your obligation to reduce waste, to cut climate pollution, and to ...Read More > >

by Charmian Barton Significant changes to the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (NSW) came into effect on 1 July 2009.  Businesses who own, lease or manage contaminated land in New South Wales may find themselves liable for contamination where they previously had no responsibility. Changes under the Contaminated Land Management Amendment Act ...Read More > >

Alan  Pears (and Macchiavelli): those who fear change are loud, while those who aim to profit from change quietly and strategically reposition themselves- By Alan Pears - I thought this issue had been resolved in 2000, when it was extensively debated. But it seems to have re-emerged.For some it is a ...Read More > >

By Murray Hogarth Global economies move in strange ways. From an environmental sustainability perspective, more and more observers are saying, Paul-Keating-like, that the current savage global economic downturn after a long boom is a recession we had to have. So what is the green lining to this dark economic cloud? Three crucial ...Read More > >

18 August 2009 - Your article on Baranga Who? highlights the need for mixed use development at Barangaroo as a fundamental requirement that needs to be incorporated on this currently barren harbour side shelf of desolate tarmac. Otherwise there is a danger of recreating the less than lively northern CBD ...Read More > >